Trampolines and Tanning.....

We just got a trampoline this year (after living here for 6). We have had a little water trouble in this particular spot in our yard, not enough drainage...so to solve for the problem we had a trampoline dug in with a pump and a drain put in underneath, therefore 'killing 2 birds with 1 stone'.
J.D. said, "I hope this gets used....", well, what better way than laying out on it with the water and a little sister on a really hot summer afternoon?? I had to sneak up on Morgan and Brenna to take this picture, they really wouldn't want me to take it, but I convinced them that it was good blogging material, after all, I used to do it too. We would load on the baby oil, or really yummy smelling coconut tanning oil and lay out for hours, or what felt like hours, I am sure it wasn't that long, I couldn't take the heat. My girls are smarter than me (or is it me telling them they can't do it, unless) and they use sunscreen, SPF 50, because who wants a sunburn, or worse, skin cancer.
Needless to say, the trampoline has been very well used in the short week that we have had it. We don't have a fence in our yard, so therefore all the neighbor kids us it too, even though they have their own. Newer is always better I guess. Thanks Dad for the tramp!! We love it!

Jiles Smiles.....

Okay, I know.....maybe not all the time or on cue, but Jiles is starting to smile!! They are kinda half crooked, side-ways smiles, but still the same, I love them!! They make me smile. He is also starting to babble and 'talk' when he wakes up in the morning. He is just over 10 weeks old now and is still the best baby in the world. I am convinced of that. He is now sleeping at night for between 5 and 6 hours before waking for a bottle, usually going to bed around

11:00 p.m. and waking sometime around 5:00 a.m., only grunting to let me know that he is ready for food. He is still is sleeping an awful lot during the day and never crying. I think that everyone thinks that I am exaggerating when I say that, but it is true....what did I do to deserve such an angel?!? Whatever it was, I am grateful!

Fathers Day and Reunions.....

Happy Fathers Day J.D.!!

We love our dad and husband! He is the best and I feel so blessed to have him in my life. He is an amazing father who loves his kids dearly.

We had a fun Fathers Day over at Grandpa and Grandma Hackwells house. We went for dinner and presents, my poor dad only got a wild assortment of Home Depot gift cards, boring. He found some sort of electric tiller that he wanted and so there you go. Not so fun, but if he is happy, we are happy. My Grandpa and Grandma Nelson were there also, it is always fun to see them. Luckily, the rain stopped long enough for us to have the kids play outside, that helps alot and they have a great time with each other and the dogs, Roxy and Wrigley. It actually seemed pretty calm over there this time, I don't know why, but it did. It was a fun afternoon. I always love spending time with my sisters and their kids -

J.D. has been planning his 20 year high school reunion for almost a year now and the big day was this last weekend. Friday was spent at Gardner Village at the 'Gathering Place' for an adult dinner and small program. The turn out was really good and it was funny to see how everyone looks after 20 years. Some people looked exactly the same, some looked better than before and there were of course the handful of schoolmates that looked terrible!! I hate to say it, but it is true. Morgan and Brenna helped to check people in with name tags and taking money from those who hadn't paid in advance. They were a great help and Morgan even got asked if she was J.D.'s wife - yikes!! What does that mean? It kinda freaked us both out. I don't know what to think of that. It was fun catching up with old friends. And, no, we weren't the ones with the most kids. One girl had 9, crazy....

This picture is of my kids on the Saturday event, Jensen wasn't happy because he wasn't in the pool yet.

So, back to the Saturday event....the freaking rain!! Need I say more? We were supposed to be outside at Lifetime Fitness, the outdoor pools was reserved just for us and the outdoor sportcourt also. So this is what ended up happening instead. All 300+ people INSIDE!! It wasn't ideal, but it wasn't bad either.

I am sure that everyone had a good time. People were also very kind and thankful to J.D. for all of the effort he went to planning the reunion. It was alot of hard work and I am sure glad that it is over. He is an over-achiever and doesn't do anything just part way...this was a big job and he did great planning and pulling it off.

This is a picture of J.D. with 2 guys in his class - Grizzly Adams (Blaine DeHaan) and another bald dude (Chris Cano) like himself. I think that they both look older than him, but I am probably just prejudice towards my guy. Oh well.

Brenna, Ella and Morgan in the pool at the party, showing me the 'love'. They had alot of fun swimming and goofing around in the water. Drew brought a friend with him and we didn't see the 2 of them nearly the whole night. Jensen also had a friend there too, so that was nice.

Four of my favorite people just chillin'

I took this of myself with Brenna, I was melting on the sidelines. Indoor pools are pretty sucky that way, way too much humidity!!

Overall, we all had a great weekend - just needed the rain to stop, but that is life. My 20 year reunion will be next summer....I cannot believe it. Time goes by way too quickly!

Yeeouch!!.....

Poor Jensen, last night before it was time to do his homework and after we had eaten dinner I sent he and Ella outside to ride bikes for a little while (while I helped Drew with his homework, one child at a time, please) - this is what happened.
Dang, Jensen is obsessed lately with BMX bikes and trying to do tricks, thanks to Nitro Circus, (he doesn't have a great bike for tricks right now) - he was using Ellas bike, a princess one, because it is smaller and funner to ride. He was doing some sort of trick off of the curb and bit the dust. Luckily we have the best neighbor in the world who is an ER doctor and she took a look at him for us and said we needed stitches in his mouth and possibly his nose. So off we went. Three hours later, three stitches later and some digging to get the gravel out of his nose we were on our way home, with antibiotics and instructions to visit our dentist to make sure his loose teeth were okay. What a night!! It seems like we have had alot of trauma in our house lately, whats up with that??!? Hopefully this will be it for a while, I am done with hospitals.

J.D. says this picture looks like he has just been arrested for some sort of drunken bar fight-

Brennas Birthday.....

June 12, 1995 Brenna was born and now she is 14!! I can't believe it. We had to celebrate her birthday yesterday afternoon as a family because she and Morgan were at Youth Conference on Friday (her birthday). This was our little party that we had for her. It wasn't much but I think that she was happy with it. She had more singing done to her this year than probably any other year of her life. More than she wanted I am sure of. She had lots of friends and YW leaders making sure her day was special since she wasn't at home. Singing to her at every meal and about 10 times during the day. Her roommate decorated their room and loaded her up with candy. Morgan and some of her friends took her gift to her and she also brought cards from home from J.D., Ella and me. She texted me that morning and said they made her cry, not my intent for sure, I just wanted her to know that we were thinking of her and loved her on her day, (No phones were supposed to be on the trip - oh well) I am so glad that she loved them!!

Ella was so excited for her to come home, when you are 4 there is not alot better than a birthday party, balloons, cupcakes and all. Ella adores her big sister. Brenna is so good to her. I think that I have said before that Ella believes that she is as big as her 2 older sisters and that is because they treat her so well. She thinks that she is one of them.

Brenna has grown into an amazing young lady. She is kind, sweet, graceful, an awesome dancer, a great friend, she is responsible, beautiful, respectful (most of the time, minus the occasional eye roll), smart, honest, and oh, so funny. I am blessed to be her mother.

Her yummy birthday cupcake ( she was supposed to eat ALL the frosting), her teeth turned bright pink when she was done - why didn't I get a picture of that??

All she wanted this year was an I-pod Touch.

Happy Birthday cute girl!! We love you and are so proud of the person that you are and that you are becoming every day....

Black hair....

So, I was driving Jensen and his friend Max to a birthday party this afternoon. They were messing around in the back seat of the car like 7 year old boys do, slapping, punching, all sorts of of stupid stuff like that. All of a sudden I hear Jensen say in a surprised voice,

"You have black hair on your legs!!"

Max says "ya"- (like so what??)

Jensen says "I am so jealous!"

I then interject..."Why are you jealous, Jensen??"

To my surprise he says in a growly voice..."because black hair means your a MAN!!"

What a strange little dude I have.

Real game and David Archuleta.....

So, for those of you who don't know, J.D. and I have had season tickets to the Real soccer games ever since they came to Utah. For four years now, soccer games have been our date nights for 6 months of the year from April through October. They are fun to go to and on special games we try to get tickets for the whole family. Usually these are on the 4th or 24th of July because they do fireworks after the games and it is just a fun summer activity for the whole family. This game, however was a fun one because cutie pie American Idol David Archuleta was there to sing the National Anthem and do a 'mini' concert after the game.

This is us sitting in the 'good' seats, the 5 other kids sat across the stadium way up at the top!! They had fun though. That is baby Jiles in the brown boppy on my lap. Those things are awesome, just put the little bundle in there and he sleeps the whole time, I still have my arms to do stuff and best of all no carseat to lug around. He is still such a sleepy baby, only wakes to eat, and then off to sleep again.

Before the game started the National Guard was there and they had 6 guys jump from an airplane and parachute down. It was amazing to see how accurately they could land on the field and how fast they are still going when they land on the ground. This was the last jumper and he had the flag attached to his feet, the guys standing there swooped that flag up so fast after he landed so it wouldn't touch the ground. Kinda cool. After this they had a airplane fly right though the middle of the stadium, literally, it was so close to the top of the stadium. I don't think anyone saw it coming, and it was LOUD!! Kinda freaky.

There's our boy David Archuleta singing the National Anthem. I wish my camera took closer pictures to see his cute face. Morgan, Brenna, Ella, and I all have a crush on him. Ella was so exited the whole day, "is it time to go see Archuleta yet?" - only his last name, that is what she calls him.

Our seats are really good at the stadium. We sit right in the middle of the field only about 15 rows up. The boxes are right above us. A little way through the first half of the game Ella was looking around and noticed 'Archuleta' standing up above us in one of the press boxes. She watched him the whole time. This is one of about 20 pictures she took of him. She just sat there with the camera focused on him, and waiting for him to look. She was cute and she is a mighty fine picture taker, if I do say so myself.

Morgan and Brenna with my friend Jenn's daughters, Megan and Ashlyn. I have know Jenn since we were in high school and now our girls are friends. Its awesome!! They all have alot of fun together and they are hilarious. They all tried to dress the same (red ribbons in their hair and long socks pulled up to their knees with shorts on)...where do they get these ideas? It was a fun night for all of us.

One last picture of our night together. We were tired and it was late, nearly 11:00p.m. The concert was loud, we were all a little deaf by the time it was over. It was fun to see a Utah boy up on the stage being famous. I love spending time with my family. These are memories that I hope we will all remember for a long time.

The end of a Soccer era.....

Today is the end of an era for our Jensen boy.... He has been playing soccer with the same group of boys for almost 5 years now. They all started playing together when they were just 3 years old and for the most part the team has all stayed the same. Today, however, was their last game together. This fall they have all chosen to move on to other things, namely football. Some of the boys are moving on to a more competitive level of soccer and the other boys want to give football a try and Jensen is one of them. He has seen how Drew has played football and I think that he is yearning to be a little bit like his big brother. I am so glad that he looks up to him, I just hope that he can have as much fun playing football as he has soccer.
J.D. was getting ready for this mornings game and looked at me in all seriousness and said "I think I am going to cry" - it is sad for us to see this come to an end. I did get a little teary at the end of the game. Jensen is a really good soccer player. He plays right wing and can get that ball in to any of the guys in the middle to make a goal. His soccer coach 'Big Adam' has always told Jensen how important guys like him are, because without them, the goals wouldn't get made.

What a great bunch of boys -

One last shout out for the other team!!

Hooray!!! Go Blue Hawks!!

Jensen actually made the only goal that their team had today, tying 1-1. Our team wins every game because they have been playing so long together and have had the same coach. They all know each others next move and have learned such great soccer skills, they are a hard team to keep up with. Today, the other team was going to have to forfeit because not enough players showed up, so we spotted them 3 of our guys and we went ahead to have our game, thus the reason for the tie. What a great way to end the season, everyone wins.

Jensen going after the ball, 'the eye of the tiger' - they call it....getting pumped for the games is fun for Dad and Jensen. He woke up this morning and said, "Dad, I have chills" - eye of the tiger maybe, or just cold, we don't know. What we do know is that we have had a great 5 years watching him grow playing soccer and being a part of a great team with awesome friends. What an amazing boy we have, and are so lucky to have him in our life. On to other things now buddy!! Good luck, we love you.

A week of perfomances....

So the 3 big kids all got to participate in the Temple Celebration that was put on by the youth in the areas of the Draper and Oquirrah (spelling, duh??) Mountain Temple districts. Our stake did a dance that represented the 1920's a 'flapper' dance. They spent the last 2 months every Wednesday during YMYW practicing and preparing for the show. There were lots of other long practices and dress rehearsals (upwards of 5 hours) to get it all right. J.D. and I were able to get tickets and go to the Conference Center on Friday night for the show. President Monson was there along with President Eyring. It was amazing to see the amount of kids, nearly 7,000 and about 1,000 youth leaders, who all put in tons of hours to be able to put on the show. The spirit was amazing and I hope my kids never forget what they were able to participate in. There will most likely never be another experience like this in their lives. We have been so blessed to be able to watch the Draper Temple be built, go to the open house with our little family and to attend the dedication with Morgan, Brenna and Drew.

I think that they really do love each other, what more could a mom ask for??!?

Morgans favorite part - Singing "Happy Birthday" to Pres. Eyring before the program started and the Military Tribute when men and women from the audience could stand and be recognized when their branch was represented. Her dad stood (along with President Monson) when they honored people who had served in the Navy.

Brennas favorite part - The very end of the program when the family all walked together to the top of the mountain towards the temple, while the youth choir sang "Families Can Be Together Forever"

Drew - "The whole thing" - (such a typical answer from my 12 year old, he is a boy of little words) and dancing with a girl, of course. His partner was one of Brennas best friends, Lindsay Dixon. An older woman!! SO LUCKY.

Drew was also in a Shakespearean Show at school this last week. His class did an Irish dance and they got to wear kilts. To be quite honest, I was surprised that he even let me take his picture while wearing a skirt!! Still handsome as ever. The 6th grade practiced their plays for a month or so. "Midsummer Nights Dream" was the play they put on.

On Friday night Brenna had her last dance recital for the year. The show was at the Sandy Amphitheater and lasted for 5, I repeat 5 hours. Sadly, my camera did not take any good pictures of Brenna and her company while they were dancing (too far back, not good lighting), I don't know what it was, so all I got were Ella and Jensen who were GREAT sports and so patient to sit through the show. Morgan and Drew were all at the dress rehearsal for the Temple Celebration, so they dodged a bullet. We had a good time overall, the weather was great, just got a little cold after the sun went down. I was not prepared for that so luckily I had an extra blanket and Ella got that.

Jensen is a GOOF!! He makes us laugh every day and was ready to be done by the end of the show, he was still able to smile for me and my camera though!!

We started out fresh and looking forward to dancing. There is a little waterfall behind Jensen, we thought that this would be a cute place to take a picture of the kids...J.D. convinced me to get in this time. Sorry Brenna, this is all you get of your end of year show!! You did amazing and just know that we all love you!

2 Month Visit....

Okay, okay, I get it... I probably post way too much!! I just treat this as my journal/scrapbook now that I have started. So, sorry to those who are sick of every last thing in my life being posted, but it is necessary for me!! To be quite honest I could write much more than I do. Anyway, today was boyfriends 2 month check-up...(he is really only 6 1/2 weeks old) they just wanted to see him a little sooner because of the preemie thing. As you can see, he is growing like a weed, already 9 pounds 1 ounce (still smaller than Jensen at birth, 9 pounds 11 ounces for him) and 21 1/2 inches long. Ella wanted to come with me to his appointment and I warned her that he was going to get shots and would most likely cry - her response "thats okay, you can just hold my hand" (shouldn't I be holding the baby??!?) Well, 3 shots later, Jiles cried a little and so did Ella...bless her heart. She was sad to see her brother have to go through that.

Jiles right afterward, truly hardly any tears from the boy...should I be surprised?? He is not a crier. I think I have been blessed with a very low maintenance boy. Time will tell if he stays this nice.

Awww..bandaids on his birdlegs. He is only in the 10th percentile for his age. He looks GIANT in this photo though.